Facebook phone rumours kicked back into life over the weekend. But the folk over at the big blue social network soon kicked out a statement saying its not building a Facebook phone. Read between the lines thought and the Facebook phone denial seems a little unconvincing. While calling it the Facebook phone might be pushing it, Zuckerberg’s gang are definitely up to something…

Techcrunch reignited talk of a Facebook phone this weekend with a story that claims the social network is pretty far down the road of developing a new smartphone platform. It says that former Facebook iPhone app creator Joe Hewitt and ex-Google Chrome OS architect Matthew Papakipos are beavering away at the project.

Facebook PR swung into action with a pretty flakey denial that still leaves the prospect of new Facebook phone projects wide open. It says: “Facebook is not building a phone. Our approach has always been to make phones and apps more social. Current projects include everything from an HTML5 version of the site to apps on major platforms to full Connect support with SDKs to deeper integrations with some manufacturers.”

It continues: “Our view is that almost all experiences would be better if they were social, so integrating deeply into existing platforms and operating systems is a good way to enable this…another example is the INQ1 phone with Facebook integration (the first so-called Facebook Phone). The people mentioned in the story are working on these projects.”

Facebook concludes that “building phone is just not what we do” but that and the rest of the statement doesn’t actually kill off the idea that a bigger Facebook phone project is in the works. Yes, Facebook won’t build a phone but then neither did Google with the Nexus One. HTC did it for them.

Another INQ Facebook phone with more customised software inside or a version of Android with a custom Facebook designed skin slapped on top like HTC Sense with even more social smarts isn’t hard to imagine. Whether we’d actually buy a Facebook phone, well, that’s another matter entirely…

Hop into the comments and let us know: is a Facebook phone a good idea? What features would it need to make you consider it?